Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino is reportedly mulling his future at the bureau and could make his decision within the next few weeks, according to two people familiar with his thinking. Sources say reports that his office at FBI headquarters is empty are inaccurate, but his departure remains very much on the table.
Bongino has found himself in the crosshairs lately, alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, as both men weather a storm of criticism over how they’re running the bureau, even though they have repeatedly achieved significant successes. Nevertheless, earlier this month, a coalition of current and former FBI personnel released a 115-page report that painted the bureau as “directionless” under the new leadership.
Bongino and Patel pushed back on the report, however, defending sweeping reforms they say have delivered major gains in accountability and public safety.
“When the director and I moved forward with these reforms, we expected some noise from the small circle of disgruntled former agents still loyal to the old Comey–Wray model,” Bongino told Fox News at the time.
“That was never our audience. Our responsibility is to the American people. And under the new leadership team, the bureau is delivering results this country hasn’t seen in decades — tighter accountability, tougher performance standards, billions saved and a mission-first culture. That’s how you restore trust.”
New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor Miranda Devine said last week that an internal 115-page report from FBI active-duty and retired agents and analysts heavily criticized Patel and Bongino since they took on their respective jobs earlier this year.
Miranda Devine, the New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor, reported that this internal document—styled like an FBI intelligence product and based on input from 24 sources and sub-sources—slammed Patel as being “in over his head” and described Bongino as “something of a clown.”
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Bongino blasted Devine’s report at the time, accusing her of peddling “gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees” and running interference for the old guard. Devine defended her work, describing the internal report as “damning” and saying it revealed a bureau adrift under Patel and Bongino’s stewardship. The document criticized both men for being more focused on social media and building their personal profiles than on the nuts and bolts of law enforcement, with one source telling agents to “stop talking, stop posting, and just be professional.”
As PJ Media previously reported, the FBI over the weekend arrested pro-Palestinian extremists who were plotting a coordinated bombing spree in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. I think they’re doing a fantastic job. From where I sit, whatever the FBI is doing now is working. Patel, for his part, told Fox News Digital that the FBI is “operating exactly as the country expects.”
This is not the first time we’ve heard that Bongino was considering leaving the bureau, and given the successes we’ve seen since he and Patel have been running the show, I think it would be a shame if either of them left.
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